Somali troops attack Islamic insurgents

Somalia

Al-Shabab militiamen fire on Somali government troops in the streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu on May 22, 2009.

Al-Shabab militiamen fire on Somali government troops in the streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu on May 22, 2009.

Photo: Mohamed Dahir, AFP/Getty Images

Photo: Mohamed Dahir, AFP/Getty Images

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Al-Shabab militiamen fire on Somali government troops in the streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu on May 22, 2009.

Al-Shabab militiamen fire on Somali government troops in the streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu on May 22, 2009.

Photo: Mohamed Dahir, AFP/Getty Images

Somali troops attack Islamic insurgents

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Hundreds of government soldiers attacked Islamic insurgents across the Somali capital amid heavy artillery shelling Friday, battling along streets strewn with bodies as they tried to regain lost ground.

The U.N.-backed government, which held just a few blocks of Mogadishu before the fighting erupted early in the day, claimed it had taken rebel-controlled areas, but the insurgents said they repelled the attacks.

One Somali reported a busload of fleeing civilians was hit by gunfire, and others told of seeing many casualties. At least 22 people were dead and more than 150 wounded across the city, residents, medical officials and an independent radio station said.

The government offensive followed a few days' lull after Islamic insurgents staged a major attack in Mogadishu. Despite successes, the insurgents failed to gain control of key installations like the airport and presidential palace, which are guarded by African Union peacekeepers.

The Islamic fighters also had been expanding their hold on territory in central Somalia taken from clan militias allied with the government.

But the militants halted when neighboring Ethiopia moved several columns of troops over the border to secure key towns. Ethiopia, which helped government troops drive Islamic militiamen out of the capital late in 2006, worries about the insurgents' links to rebel groups on its own soil.

The United Nations said 49,000 people had fled the capital, and the humanitarian situation was dire. Many families camped out under trees or by the side of roads, sheltered by nothing more than a few scraps of plastic, without access to food or water.

Somalis have not known peace for a generation, ever since warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991.